U.S. Pat. No. 8,833,556 B2 to Wright shows a suction tip holster insert; more specifically, it discloses a cleaning and storage system for an aspiration instrument. This system consists of a removable and disposable insert, which must be folded down to stay in place. It also fashions a ledge inside the holster to support the tip of the suction tube off the base of the unit to allow for fluids and secretions to drip into the base. With this holster the suction tube is not reliably held within the disposable insert and if the base unit is oriented any way other than vertically, the suction tube can fall out and become contaminated as well as contaminate anything it touches. This holster requires additional set up time to place the disposable insert into the holster and fold down the edges. This can be detrimental in the case of an emergency, when time matters. The means for attaching the holster to various objects, such as a bed rail, ventilator, hospital stand, or wall, requires two hands to attach a clip, tie-straps, or adhesive strips, which again, takes extra time for set up, and in addition, the holster can not be easily moved to another location if needed, which is often the case in real practice. The feature of having a ledge to hold the suction tip above the base of the insert is not warranted because in real practice, most residual secretions are suctioned away from the tip and into the suction tubing, leaving little to no residual secretions to actually drip from the end of the tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,679 to Code shows a holster for securing a contamination-barrier sac for an instrument, specifically intake nozzles of medical and dental operating room suction equipment. It shows that normally such intake nozzles are sealed in a sterile bubble wrap leading to an opportune time to utilize this existing wrap as a contaminating-barrier sac, but states that alternatively, a disposable sterilizable liner may be used. This holster has an opening at both the upper and lower ends with a clip on the inside of each end to attach and hold either type of contamination barrier sac in place. This method of containing the sac requires the user to use both hands to clip the sac properly into each clip, which is time consuming. More importantly, it does not offer a way to prevent the sac from being punctured, especially through the bottom end of the sac, when the suction tube tip is placed in and out of the sac, as it offers no solid bottom surface. The intake nozzle can puncture through the bottom of the sac if there is nothing to support it. The clips themselves may also puncture the sac, leaving the suction tip exposed to the inside of the holster, thereby contaminating the inside of the holster as well as contaminating the intake nozzle. The device itself offers no retaining capability for the suction tube to reliably stay inside the holster and it is impossible to use with one hand.
U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 2006/0192064 A1 to White, U.S. Pat. No. 7,377,780 B2 to White, 7,422,421 B2 to White and U.S. Pat. No. 7,913,959 B2 to White show a medical/dental suction nozzle holster with varying features. The primary characteristic of White's holster is that it may be oriented in three distinct operating positions with respect to the floor of the room in which it is located. Although White's holster may be oriented in three different operating positions, White's holster's design does not prevent the suction nozzle from falling out of the open end of the holster if the open end of the holster is pitched downward. White's holster also requires the use of both hands to mount the holster to an object and to change it into any of the three separation ribs that it houses, taking the users attention away from patient care. This type of mount can only be attached to a rail and can not be attached to other items such as IV poles, work carts, anesthesia machines, or nearby medical equipment which would prevent it from being used exactly where it may need to be located. This device also offers no way to reliably retain the suction nozzle from falling out of the holster.
One objective of the present invention is to provide a kit for storing, releasably holding, releasably retaining or releasably restricting the undesired movement of a medical suction tube, e.g. Yankauer Suction Instrument before, during, or after use in a medical procedure.
A second objective is to provide a method for storing, releasably holding, releasably retaining or releasably restricting undesired movement of a medical suction tube, e.g. Yankauer Suction Instrument before use, during use, or after use in a medical procedure in which the medical suction tube is used to collect biological fluids during the medical procedure.
A third objective is to store, releasably hold, releasably retain or releasably restrict undesired movement of a medical suction tube, e.g., Yankauer Suction Instrument before use, during use, or after use in a medical procedure in which the medical suction tube, e.g., Yankauer Suction Instrument in a location where it can be parked or withdrawn for immediate use by an operator using only one hand.
Therefore, there is a need for storing, releasably holding, releasably retaining or releasably restricting the undesired movement of an instrument before, during, or after use in a medical procedure.